[1] The township includes the population centres of Braemar, Cassel, East Zorra, Hickson, Huntingford, Innerkip, Perry Mine, Perrys Lane, Strathallan, Tavistock, Tollgate, Willow Lake, and Woodstock Airport.

By 1869, Braemar was a village with a population of 75 in the Township of East Zorra, County Oxford.

Hickson was founded in 1876 when the town of Strathallen was bypassed by the new Port Dover and Lake Huron Railway, which went in east of the anticipated location.

A new village was created at the whistle-stop, and Strathallan slowly faded away as community members relocated, along with a few houses moved by the milk factory.

In 1932, amid the Great Depression, the Canadian National Railways (CN, the successor to the Grand Trunk) ended rail service and infrastructure maintenance on the line between Hickson and Tavistock Junction.

Hickson is home to Hickson Central Public School (elementary), a public park, the East-Zorra Tavistock township hall and volunteer fire department, a post office, and several small businesses.

Tavistock has hosted the World Crokinole Championship (WCC) tournament annually on the first Saturday of June since 1999.

Tavistock was chosen as the host village because it was closest to the Sebastopol, Ontario home of Eckhardt Wettlaufer, the maker of the earliest known board.

They have worked very hard to provide in excess of 150 labeled native trees and shrubs.

In 1836, he settled on this site, cleared farmland and built a one-storey log dwelling.

Until 1848, when what is now Tavistock was established, Caister's home was the only public accommodation in north-central Oxford County for pioneers moving along the Huron Road and thence southerly into the Zorra settlement.

A stone cairn erected 1930 in memory of Captain Henry Eckstein, founder of Tavistock, A.D. 1848.

This monument represents the role of farm women in the foundation and progress of Canadian Agriculture.

An historic house from Tavistock's earliest days, at 52 Woodstock St. S. There is a plaque marking its significance.